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General Principle There is a correlation between a church’s number of units and its membership strength.

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Basic Principles of Denominational Growth n Growing denominations start more churches than they close. n Declining denominations close more churches than they start.

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Sunday School Multiplication

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Points from Richard Myers’ Program Expansion: The Key to Church Growth 1. The number of church school classes determines how many persons can participate in the church school. More classes, larger attendance Fewer classes, smaller attendance.

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Congregations with the same number of program groups and staff will have about the same: Congregations with the same number of program groups and staff will have about the same: 2. Correlation between program groups, church staff, and church membership n church membership n worship attendance n church school attendance n women’s society and youth fellowship groups.

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3. There is a strong correlation between average Sunday school attendance and the number of members received by profession of faith. n Myers felt that expansion of Sunday school programs will lead to the expansion of the entire church.

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A world of trade-offs n Larger, more established classes take a better care of current members. n Newer, smaller classes are better at bringing new members into the church.

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General Principle two: New units are generally more reproductive than older units.

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Other factors important to this principle: n Whether a group’s mission includes reaching new people. n Whether many of the groups are relatively new. n Whether or not the groups relate to the target population

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Principle three: n When a new class flanks an old stagnant one, the older of the two may experience growth. Sometimes old units flanked by a new unit will experience growth.

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Principle four: n Old units that get new units started may experience growth.

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Flake formula of Sunday School Growth n Locate the prospects n Enlarge the organization n Enlist and train workers n Go after the people

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Modifications to the Flake Formula n Baptist churches now do this annually n Baptists insist on multiplying units using classes small enough for relationships to form n They try to enroll as many people as possible n One person is responsible to recruit and train new teachers for these new classes

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Wesley’s Multiplying “Classes”

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Wesley’s model n Preach in as many places as you can. n Start as many classes as you can. n Do not preach without starting new classes.

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Wesley’s Classes Should be understood by their agenda They were not like small groups we are familiar with

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People joining Wesley’s classes made three commitments: n To do good n To avoid all known sin n To pursue regularly the means of grace

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Views on Wesley’s Approach n Wesley’s objective is to help people to live as Christians 1. Gloster Udy: these classes reflected Wesley’s view that Christianity is not a solitary religion 2. David Lowes Watson: the classes were accountability groups 3. Hunter sees “accountability” as too legalistic. He feels the groups were created for liberation, not discipline.

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Wesley’s Goals n His means of doing this was through his classes n He hypothesized that the good fruit in the church would emerge when God’s people met together in small house churches and classes as the early church did Wesley sought to return to the “love, faith, hope, courage, and vision,” of the Apostolic church

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Wesley’s affirmation of the Church as a social phenomenon draws four on principles n Power is available to awaken people in any setting –to awaken people and enroll them in classes were the two objectives of field preaching and lay witness n Awakened people experienced grace through the ministry of the cells, most often in hours of solitude following the cell meetings

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n Once gained, faith is maintained through fellowship within the society n People also grow in completeness of love in fellowship

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Multiplying Units Today

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Nine steps to starting new groups within the church n Define the target group of people n Research the target audience and the ministry that would respond to their needs n Find a committed lay person willing to be involved in the group. The person should identify with the target group

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n Train this person on how to start a new group n Begin recruiting before the first group session n Find an appropriate place to meet n Stress the importance of the first several months. n Keep accurate records of the experience for reference in starting later groups n Build in monitoring and evaluation procedures